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NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office is continuing it investigation into the death of a man whose body was found in a shallow grave on Sonoma State University property this past week, releasing new details on Saturday.
The body of Kirk Ryan Kimberly, 18, of Cotati was found in a wooded area on the outskirts of the campus by an employee on Wednesday, as Lake County News has reported.
Kimberly had been reported missing about two weeks before his body was found, officials said.
On Saturday Lt. Tim Duke of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office Investigations Division offered new details on the case.
Duke said the investigation has revealed that Kimberly was stabbed multiple times by his assailant – or assailants. However, Duke did not release specifics about where Kimberly was wounded, how many wounds he had or the weapon authorities believe was used in the homicide.
“Preliminarily, detectives believe this was not a random act of violence but an isolated incident,” Duke said in his report. “Thus far, detectives have found no affiliation with the homicide and Sonoma State University or its students, other than where the body was found, which was on the property, in an isolated and secluded area of the campus.”
Duke said detectives, as well as other sheriff’s office personnel, are continuing to work around the clock on this case collecting and processing physical, trace and forensic evidence.
Anyone with information about Kimberly disappearance or who has knowledge of this incident is encouraged to call Detective Joseph Horsman of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Violent Crimes Unit at 707-565-2185.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has another group of big dogs ready for homes this week.
This week's dogs include mixes Labrador Retriever, pit bull, Rottweiler and shepherd.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
'Perchuan'
“Perchuan” is a male Rottweiler mix with a short black and tan coat.
He's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 3557.
Rottweiler-shepherd mix
This young male Rottweiler-shepherd mix has a medium-length black and brown coat with white markings.
He's in kennel No. 19, ID No. 6412.
Labrador Retriever mix
This female Labrador Retriever mix has a short black coat with white markings.
She already has been spayed.
She's in kennel No. 21, ID No. 6308.
Rottweiler-shepherd mix
This young male Rottweiler-shepherd mix has a medium-length black and tan coat.
He's in kennel No. 22, ID No. 6411.
Rottweiler mix
This female Rottweiler mix has a black coat with some brindle markings.
Shelter staff said she need some training and is manageable on a leash. They said she is a very nice dog and knows not to jump when excited. After proper introductions, she has gotten along with other dogs she has met, including off-leash play. She would do best in a home with no cats.
She's in kennel No. 25, ID No. 5947.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Earth’s moon is an unusual object in our solar system, and now there’s a new theory to explain how it got where it is, which puts some twists on the current “giant impact” theory.
The work is published Oct. 31 in the journal Nature.
The moon is relatively big compared to the planet it orbits, and it’s made of almost the same stuff, minus some more volatile compounds that evaporated long ago.
That makes it distinct from every other major object in the solar system, said Sarah Stewart, professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Davis, and senior author on the paper.
“Every other body in the solar system has different chemistry,” she said.
The textbook theory of lunar formation goes like this: Late in the formation of the solar system came the “giant impact” phase, when hot, planet-sized objects collided with each other.
A Mars-sized object grazed what would become Earth, throwing off a mass of material from which the moon condensed. This impact set the angular momentum for the Earth-moon system, and gave the early Earth a five-hour day.
Over millennia, the moon has receded from the Earth and the rotation has slowed to our current 24-hour day.
Scientists have figured this out by looking at the moon’s current orbit, working out how rapidly angular momentum of the Earth-moon system has been transferred by the tidal forces between the two bodies, and working backward.
But there are a couple of problems with the textbook theory. One is the moon’s surprisingly Earth-like composition. Another is that if the moon condensed from a disk of material rotating around Earth’s equator, it should be in orbit in the plane of the ecliptic – the same plane as the other planets.
But the moon’s current orbit is tilted 5 degrees off the ecliptic, meaning some more energy must have been put in to move it.
An alternative to explain it all
Stewart, her former postdoctoral fellow Matija Ćuk (now a scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California), with Douglas Hamilton at the University of Maryland and Simon Lock, Harvard University, have come up with an alternative model.
In 2012, Ćuk and Stewart proposed that some of the angular momentum of the Earth-moon system could have been transferred to the Earth-sun system. That allows for a more energetic collision at the beginning of the process.
In the new model, a high-energy collision left a mass of vaporized and molten material from which the Earth and moon formed. The Earth was set spinning with a two-hour day, its axis pointing toward the sun.
Because the collision could have been more energetic than in the current theory, the material from Earth and the impactor would have mixed together, and both Earth and moon condensed from the same material and therefore have a similar composition.
As angular momentum was dissipated through tidal forces, the moon receded from the Earth until it reached a point called the “LaPlace plane transition,” where the forces from the Earth on the moon became less important than gravitational forces from the sun.
This caused some of the angular momentum of the Earth-moon system to transfer to the Earth-sun system.
This made no major difference to the Earth’s orbit around the sun, but it did flip Earth upright. At this point, the models built by the team show the moon orbiting Earth at a high angle, or inclination, to the ecliptic.
Over a few tens of million years, the moon continued to slowly move away from Earth until it reached a second transition point, the Cassini transition, at which point the inclination of the moon – the angle between the moon’s orbit and the ecliptic – dropped to about 5 degrees, putting the moon more or less in its current orbit.
The new theory elegantly explains the moon’s orbit and composition based on a single, giant impact at the beginning, Stewart said. No extra intervening steps are required to nudge things along.
“One giant impact sets off the sequence of events,” she said.
The research was supported by NASA.
Andy Fell writes for UC Davis News and Media Relations.
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES (Rated PG-13)
A spy movie spoof done right can be a lot of fun. Melissa McCarthy bounced back from the dreadful “Tammy” with a nice comedic turn in “Spy,” playing the part of a tourist caught up in international intrigue.
The same idea in “Keeping Up with the Joneses” does not work quite so well for Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher, the ordinary suburban couple Jeff and Karen Gaffney living a drab middle-class existence that is upended by the arrival of new neighbors who turn out to be spies.
The Joneses, apparently not clever with good cover names, are Tim and Natalie (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot, respectively), who move into a neighboring house on the nondescript cul-de-sac next to Karen and Jeff.
With the kids away for summer camp, the Gaffneys were hoping to have alone-time to rekindle their romantic fire. Instead, they become distracted by the new neighbors who exhibit the type of sophistication and style that is out-of-place in their neighborhood.
Tim Jones claims to be an accomplished travel writer whose hobbies include blowing his own glass sculptures and his wife Natalie is a social media consultant, cooking blogger and heroine to the plight of Sri Lankan orphans.
Karen Gaffney is immediately suspicious of the glamorous couple, asking “Why would people this attractive and accomplished ever want to live here?” She becomes so obsessed with the neighbors that she tails Natalie all over town to shopping malls.
One thing we learn is that the statuesque Natalie is stunningly sexy when standing around in a changing room dressed in black lingerie that might have looked good decades ago on Cher.
Meanwhile, Jeff has taken a new buddy approach to Tim, seeing in him the type of “cool” friend he doesn’t have at his aerospace firm because he’s stuck in a mundane human resources position that no one respects.
I think it was meant to be very funny that Tim takes Jeff to lunch at an underground Chinese restaurant that serves meals of exotic wildlife, and Tim responds that Panda Express does not serve its namesake as a meal.
Prodded by his skeptical wife, Jeff is soon ensnared in snooping on the Joneses only to discover that they really are covert secret agents, and now Jeff and Karen are in the crosshairs of some very bad people.
The Joneses suspect that an engineer at Jeff’s aerospace company is selling top secrets to an arms dealer, who turns out to be Patton Oswalt, a patently unfunny character who is as realistic in this role as would be one of the Three Stooges.
In any case, notwithstanding an extended car chase that seems gratuitously tossed in just so the movie has a decent action scene, “Keeping Up with the Joneses” is regrettably too lackluster and predictable.
There are a few laughs sprinkled throughout, many at the expense of other women acting out of petty jealousies directed to Natalie. Overall, “Keeping Up with the Joneses” is a bland comedy that is mostly a dead-end for laughs.
TV Corner: 'The Crown' on Netflix
Netflix is going all out in a very big, splashy and expensive way for “The Crown,” a new British series about the British monarchy under the long-running rule of Queen Elizabeth II.
This elaborate production, which has not stinted one bit for recreating the lavish style of the royal family, should easily rival “Downton Abbey” for the attention of those craving a British costume drama.
The story of “The Crown” begins shortly after the end of World War II when Britain is still reeling from wartime devastation, and the nation is mesmerized by the nuptials of the beautiful young princess Elizabeth (Claire Foy) to the dashing Philip Mountbatten (Matt Smith).
Princess Elizabeth expected to have many years of married bliss while her husband’s career in the Navy would flourish. But that came to an abrupt end when her father King George VI died unexpectedly.
At the tender age of 25, Princess Elizabeth inherits the Crown and the unimaginable burdens that it brings. As to be expected, the new Queen has to deal with men who doubt her capacity to be the figurehead leader of her country.
There’s great history in the relationship of the young monarch and her affinity for Sir Winston Churchill (John Lithgow), who is seen by many as too old to serve as leader of Great Britain in his role as Prime Minister.
And then there’s the scandal of the Queen’s younger sister, Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby), having an affair with Peter Townsend (Ben Miles), a trusted officer of the British royal household.
While the respected Churchill is a known figure to American audiences, other political persons and events may not resonate too well.
Nevertheless, the intrigue may prove fascinating or tedious, depending on your point of view or depth of understanding of British politics.
Netflix has already made a second season commitment to “The Crown,” allowing writer Peter Morgan (“Frost/Nixon” and “The Queen”) and his team to further a series that could take years to complete.
The words of a press release note that Peter Morgan is granted the “creative freedom to tell the story of the world’s most famous family with the scale and elegance it deserves,” and “The Crown” seems poised to do just that, maybe for some time to come.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with American Legion Post No. 437, will celebrate its 73rd birthday on Friday, Nov. 11, with a 1940s themed dance.
The event will take place at the Post Hall, 14770 Austin Road in Clearlake.
Doors open at 6 p.m. Cost is $10 per person.
The event also will recognize veterans and members of the American Legion.
The Legion is currently striving to increase its membership, and particularly encourages those younger service members to join. Those with immediate family who had or are serving, may also eligible for membership.
If you know anyone who may be eligible, bring them along and dance the night away to the tunes of DJ Gunzie.
To RSVP, contact the chamber office at 707-994-3600 or email
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A fine rain fell over the Riviera Trunk or Treat on Halloween, and chilly weather meant coats and rain boots for attendees.
No worries, the rain did not dampen the spirits of the Riviera trick-or-treaters or the volunteers.
Children do not care about the weather when they are trick or treating. And so, several amazing volunteers braved the uncertain weather and made the Riviera Trick or Treat really special for the children.
Clear Lake Riviera Community Association hosts the trunk or treat event as a safe alternative to trick or treating.
Local community members and businesses reserve parking spaces, donate goodies, and dress in costume to hand out treats.
Many create games and activities for the kids to play. It really is a fun event for all ages. It has the atmosphere of a night-time block party with adults and kids socializing and music playing from several cars.
This year’s best decorated trunk winners were judged by anonymous elementary school students so there was no possible bribing the judges with candy.
The winner’s selected were: The Flintstones, The Gravedigger’s BBQ and the Carnival Games.
The booths this year were really hard to choose winners from the elementary judges because they were all really creative and fun.
The winners took home gift certificates from Alexander Baking Co., Pogo’s Pizza and Common Grounds Coffee Shop.
